Friday, January 31, 2014

FAIR Testing

We are FAIR testing today and Monday in room N16.  Please go there instead of my classroom.

Also your African Culture Wheel Projects are due today!  Please either send me the link to your prezi, or send your powerpoint presentation to amy.dewalt@polk-fl.net .  If you chose to complete a posterboard, please bring it to class.  



Thursday, January 30, 2014

1/29 & 1/30

1/29 Yesterday we read chapters one and two of Things Fall Apart by Chinna Achebe.  Please be advised, that I should have told you to be taking notes from the novel.  We are going to have a test on it, and you will need them.  


·       Here is a link where you can reread chapters for Things Fall Apart.  http://kathystefanides.escuelacampoalegre.wikispaces.net/file/view/things-fall-apart-chinua-achebe+(1).pdf
You should go back and create notes for the first two chapters that will help you for the test.  You might want to write it just the way I summarized it today in class.

1/30 Today we read chapter three in class and some of us got to part of chapter four.  Again, if you did not take notes, please do so.


I also informed students today that we will be having a quiz next week on the African terms that were given out on a handout.  If you did not get a handout, here are the words and definitions:


Agbala- woman, also used of a man who has taken no title
Ani- an Earth goddess
Chi- personal god
Efulefu-worthless man
Egwugwu- a masquerader who impersonates one of the ancestral spirits in the village
Ekwe- a drum made from wood
Foo foo- a food made from yams
Ilo- a village green where sports, discussions, etc take place
Jigida- a string of waist beads
Kwenu- a shout of approval and greeting
Ndichie- elders
Obi- the large living quarters of the head of the family
Ogbanje- a changeling; a child who repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be reborn.
Ogene- a musical instrument, a kind of gong
Oye- the name of one of the four market days

Tomorrow, 1/31 and Monday, 2/3, we will finish up our FAIR testing for the year.  We will meet in room N16.  Please go there instead of going to my room first.  This will waste valuable testing time.  See you all there.

Also, remember that Culture Wheel projects are due tomorrow, so remember to bring you flash drive, poster board, or you can email me the project or link at amy.dewalt@polk-fl.net.  

Do not forget a reference page!!!!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Friday, Monday, and Tuesday 1/27 and 1/28

On Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, students worked on their "Things Fall Apart" Culture wheels on the laptops in my classroom to learn the history of the Igbo Tribe of Africa.  The project is due on Friday 1/31.  Students will either email it to me at amy.dewalt@polk-fl.net, or they can turn it in on a flashdrive (if they chose to use digital media).  If they chose to create a poster board, it is due on that day.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Sorry about not posting this week guys. I have been sick.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of his week, students completed vocabulary work for the novel "Things Fall Apart."    On Friday we will be starting a computer project where students will create a presentation about the culture of Africa.  I will have a laptop cart in my room.  See you then!

For these worksheets, students need to complete 3 things.  They should:

1.  Guess what the italicized word in the sentence means by using the context clues.
2.  Then write the actual meaning of the word from the dictionary (the whole definition).
3.  Match the words to the definition.

PREREADING VOCABULARY WORKSHEETS-Things Fall Apart

Chapters 1-4

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Context Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.
Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think
the underlined words mean in the space provided.

1. The drums beat and the flutes sang and the spectators held their breath.

2. In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow.

3. He wore a haggard and mournful look except when he was drinking or playing his flute.

4. An ultimatum was immediately dispatched to Mbaino asking them to choose between war on the
 one hand, and on the other the offer of a young man and a virgin as compensation.

5.& 6. And so when Okonkwo of Umuofia arrived at Mbaino as the proud and imperious emissary
 of war, he was treated with great honor and respect, and two days later he returned home with
 a lad of fifteen and a young virgin.


7. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little
 children.

8. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear
 of the forest, and of the forces of nature, red in tooth and claw.

9. Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great
 anxiety for his incipient laziness.

10. But he was struck, as most people were, by Okonkwo’s brusqueness in dealing with less
 successful men.

11. Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the
 next ancestral feast.

12. But it was really not true that Okonkwo’s palm kernels had been cracked for him by a benevolent
 spirit. 38

Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 2

Note: The harmattan is a dry, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara and along the northwestern coast
 of Africa.

Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

____ 1. spectators                                                  A. not providing for the future
____ 2. improvident                                                B. lasting for eternity
____ 3. haggard                                                     C. characterized by doing good
____ 4. compensation                                             D. an agent sent in advance
____ 5. imperious                                                   E. observers
____ 6. emissary                                                    F. related to a clan or tribe
____ 7. perpetual                                                   G. impulsive and unpredictable
____ 8. capricious                                                  H. abrupt and curt manner; blunt
____ 9. incipient                                                      I. arrogantly domineering; overbearing
____ 10. brusqueness                                              J. beginning to exist or appear
____ 11. kindred                                                    K. payment; reimbursement
____ 12. benevolent                                                L. appearing worn and exhausted

Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 3

Chapters 5-7

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Context Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.
Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think
the underlined words mean in the space provided.

1. The new year must begin with tasty, fresh yams and not the shriveled and fibrous crop of the
 previous year.

2. All cooking pots, calabashes, and wooden bowls were thoroughly washed, especially the wooden
 mortar in which yam was pounded.

3. The drums rose to a frenzy.

4. Old men nodded to the beat of the drums and remembered the days when they wrestled to its
 intoxicating rhythm.

5. Within a short time the two bouts were over.

6. Nwoye would feign annoyance and grumble aloud about women and their troubles.

7. And when he did this he saw that his father was pleased, and no longer rebuked him.

8. They went back to their caves in a distant land, where they were guarded by a race of stunted
 men.

9. They were the harbingers sent to survey the land.

10. Okonkwo sat in his obi crunching happily with Ikemefuna and Nwoye, and drinking palm-wine
 copiously....

Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 4
Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
____ 1. fibrous                                                             A. forerunners
____ 2. calabashes                                                       B. criticized; reprimanded
____ 3. frenzy                                                              C. contests; matches
____ 4. intoxicating                                                      D. violent mental agitation; wild excitement
____ 5. bouts                                                               E. threadlike
____ 6. feign                                                                F. abundantly
____ 7. rebuked                                                          G. stopped from growing
____ 8. stunted                                                            H. pretend; represent falsely
____ 9. harbingers                                                        I. stimulating or exciting
____10. copiously                                                        J. containers made from dried gourds

Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 5

Chapters 8-10

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Context Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.
Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think
the underlined words mean in the space provided.

1. “When did you become a shivering old woman,” Okonkwo asked himself, “you who are known
 in all the nine villages for your valor in war?”

2. As she buried one child after another her sorrow gave way to despair and then to grim
 resignation.

3. In that way she will elude her wicked tormentor and break its evil cycle of birth and death.

4. He brought out a sharp razor from the goatskin bag slung from his left shoulder and began to
 mutilate the child.

5. Her husband’s wife took this for malevolence, as her husband’s wives were wont to do.

6. At first Ekwefi accepted her, as she had the others - with listless resignation.

7. ...she could not ignore the fact that some really evil children sometimes misled people into digging
 up a specious one.

8. “No,” said Ezinma, whose feeling of importance was manifest in her sprightly walk.

9. Most communal ceremonies took place at that time of day....

10. The egwugwu house was now a pandemonium of quavering voices.

11. ...the spirits of the ancestors, just emerged from the earth, greeted themselves in their esoteric
 language.

12. There was a loud murmur of approbation from the crowd.

Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 6

Note: The following words are necessary for understanding the story, but will not be tested.
*On the third day he asked his second wife, Ekwefi, to roast plantains for him.
A banana-like fruit, used as a staple food in tropical regions.
*Obierika was sitting outside under the shade of an orange tree making thatches from the leaves of the
 raffia-palm.
Plant stalks or foliage, such as reeds or palm fronds, used for roofing.
*In Abame and Aninta the title is worth less than two cowries.
Any of various tropical marine gastropods of the family Cypraeidae, having glossy, often brightly
marked shells, some of which are used as currency in the South Pacific and Africa.
Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

____ 1. valor                                                                      A. lacking in spirit or energy
____ 2. resignation                                                              B. wild uproar or noise
____ 3. elude                                                                     C. courage in battle; bravery
____ 4. mutilate                                                                  D. understandable; clear
____ 5. malevolence                                                           E. approval
____ 6. listless                                                                    F. evil or harmful influence
____ 7. specious                                                                G. known only to the chosen few
____ 8. manifest                                                                 H. to disfigure or cripple
____ 9. communal                                                               I. of a group of people.
____ 10. pandemonium                                                       J. avoid; evade
____ 11. esoteric                                                                K. seemingly reliable but incorrect
____ 12. approbation                                                          L. lack of resistance; patient submission

Monday, January 13, 2014

grammar review for midterm

I noticed that I didn't post this.  Most of you should have it.  I gave it out last week.  If you didn't get this, complete it and bring it with you for the exam, I will allow you to use it during the test.

Name: ___________________________________________ 
Date:____________________________________________
Period: __________________________________________

Dewalt Study Guide for Midterm Exam
Be sure to study all vocabulary words, and especially the literary terms that you have been given throughout the year so far. 
1.      What is a noun?

2.      What is a pronoun?

3.      What is an adjective and what does it modify?

4.      What is a verb?

5.      What is a preposition?

6.      What is a conjunction?

7.      What does FANBOYS represent?

Directions: Circle all the nouns in the following sentence.
8.      The mantis is an unusual insect of strange habits.
9.      This creature lives in many parts of the world.
10.  Perhaps twenty different species can be found in the United States.
11.  The mantis is a friend of the farmer.
12.  Its victims often include grasshoppers and caterpillars.
Circle all the pronouns in the following sentence.
13.  These are our tickets for Romeo and Juliet.
14.  I think my aunt would like to sit with us, if that is all right with you.
15.  She wants to see her son play the part of Mercutio, who is the best friend of Romeo.
16.  Your friend Mike designed most of the stage set himself, and he is very proud of it.
17.  It was the first Shakespeare play that some of us had ever seen.
Circle the adjectives and draw an arrow to the word it modifies or describes.
18.  The early Greeks readily believed that mantises had supernatural powers.
19.  The mantis is a long, predatory insect.
20.  The female mantis lays many eggs in a frothy mass.
21.  This mass hardens eventually into an egg case, which is fastened tightly to the woody stem of a plant.
22.  The tall milkweed is a very common place to find egg cases.
Circle the verbs in the sentence and tell me in the blank if it is a transitive or intransitive verb.
23.  Mr. Jenkin’s cat watched the birds in the trees.____________________________________________
24.  We will not buy a new car until next summer._____________________________________________
25.  The small boat moved slowly._________________________________________________________
26.  Diane tripped on the top step and fell downstairs.__________________________________________
27.  Please order a hamburger and a milkshake for me. _________________________________________
Circle the adverbs in the sentence and write what question it answers (How?, When?, or Where?)
28.  During the fire drill, everyone acted very calmly.
29.  The monkeys at the zoo swing wildly from branch to branch.
30.  The brown bears roared fiercely while lying on the rocks.
31.  I proudly displayed my field day ribbons on our refrigerator.
32.  I went bowling, yesterday, with my family.
Circle the prepositions and underline the prepositional phrases in the following sentences.
33.  You can find the dishwashing soap beneath the sink and behind the cleanser.
34.  According to the newspaper, the new statue will stand beside the river.
35.  Because of the heavy rains and flooding, the bus could not make it through the city.
36.  Please park the trailer in front of the house.
37.  Did you remember to place the scarecrow near the garden?
Circle the all the conjunctions in the following sentence AND underline the interjections.
38.  Gosh, it’s not blinking, and it does not seem to move like an airplane.
39.  People either believe in UFOs or they do not.
40.  Well, my friends Todd and Louisa believe in flying saucers, yet there is not much
evidence that they exist.
41.  I thought the light was coming closer, but it was just my imagination.
42.  Oops, the light is neither an airplane nor a UFO, but only the planet Venus.




1/13/14

Today in class we reviewed Vocabulary words and Literary terms for the midterm exam.  Here is a copy of the review sheet:\


Accolades
Auspicious
Chastised
Compulsive
Defiled
Dirge
Doctrined
Earnest
Edict
Lamentation
Lithe
Perverse
Sated
Stealthy
Transgression

These words will definitely be on the midterm.

These literary terms will be on the test as well.

Hamartia
Hubris
Poetic Justice
Foil
Parados
Exodus
Tragic hero
Internal Conflict
External Conflict

Midterm schedule this week

Period 1 Tuesday morning
Period 2 Tuesday afternoon
Period 3 Wednesday morning
Period 4 Wednesday afternoon
Period 5 Thursday morning
Period 6 Thursday afternoon

Remember to bring you Grammar and Antigone study guides as you will be able to use them on the exam.  You will not be able to use this vocab and literary term guide so please study the words.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Friday 1/10/14

Hi guys--sorry I haven't posted to the blog.  I totally forgot about it this week.

This week we were reviewing for our midterm exams.  We first worked on grammar worksheets, then we worked on an Antigone review sheet as well.  I will allow you to use each of these study guides during the exam.  If you were absent on Friday you will find the Antigone worksheet below.  Thanks and have a wonderful weekend.
Testing starts next week so please be prepared.

Here is a link to the play online if you need it:  http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/esimpson/files/antigone%20text.pdf




Name: _________________________

Dewalt- Midterm Review for Antigone

Answer the questions.  Write in COMPLETE SENTENCES!!!!


  1. At the beginning of the play, what has just happened in the sisters’ family?



  1. What does Antigone plan to do?  Why?




  1. Does Ismene plan to join her?  Why or why not?




  1. How does the sentry act when he comes before Creon?  What does this suggest about Creon’s personality or reputation?




  1. What news does the sentry bring? Who does Creon think is responsible?




  1. Who does the sentry bring before Creon?  How has the culprit been caught?




  1. What is Antigone’s attitude toward death?




  1. Whom else does Creon want to question?


  1. What does Creon say is the greatest evil that society faces?  (hint: lines 33-44)




  1. What does Haemon ask Creon to do?




  1. Haemon says, “Then she must die.  But her death will cause another.”  What does Haemon mean?  What does Creon think he means?




  1. How will Antigone be killed?




  1. When Creon reaches the cave where he has imprisoned Antigone, what happens?




  1. As a result of their deaths, who else dies and how?




  1. What is Creon’s attitude at the end of the play?





  1. Judging by the final speeches of the play, what do you think is Creon’s fatal flaw?